Sorry, I Couldn't Help Myself - Obama Supporters

Her name is Peggy Joseph



Just in case you missed it: "It was the most memorable time of my life. It was a touching moment. Because, I, I never thought this day would ever happen. I won't have to worry about putting gas in my car, I won't have to worry about paying my mortgage, you know, if I help him, he's gonna help me."

Normally I try and keep politics out of the mix here on The Big Bald Blog, but Obama and his supporters scare me to death. From the advocates that I've spoke with, this example seems to be the norm rather than the exception. I guess it doesn't matter how you win, it's just that you win.

Here is the original broadcast.

OK, let me have it.

 

It's Happening - Just Like I Said I Would

Wednesday, May 16, 2007, I wrote about how people are turning to online sources for their news.

In that article I asked the question, "What do you think is going to happen when a news paper has to make a decision about spending $600,000 to fix a 40 year old press? How far would that same $600,000 go for web development and web marketing?"

We now have an answer. Well, at least we have an answer on a local level. The Waterloo Courier, the nearly 150 year old local newspaper, now owned by Lee Enterprises, has just shut down production at the local facility. The printing in now being outsourced to Color Web Printers, a Cedar Rapids based company. The closing of the production line resulted in 52 people loosing their jobs.

The Courier is promoting this as a good thing, contrary to the impact on the community. But what are you to do when circulation and readership continues to drop? You are forced to raise prices. It's just a matter of time before it all falls apart.

If you are a staunch newsprint advertiser, try pulling your ads for 1 month. Let me know what you find out. Did it impact your business in a negative way? If your target audience is 40 and under, I think that you may be surprised at the results.

So what do you think? Is newspaper dying?

 

The Power Of Blogging

Everyone knows that blogging will give you super powers. I am not talking about "Wonder Twin powers activate" type powers. I am talking about the power to say what's on your mind and have a potential audience that reaches exponentially further than other no-cost publishing mediums.

Sure if you want to write a book or do something like start a magazine, you could potentially impact just as many people but it's going to cost you. What most of us don't know is that some bloggers actually have significant power. It all depends on who you are connected with or what you are connected to. What if you had the ability to effect the stock price of a major, publicly held company? Well, one industrious 18 year old did.

On his blog, this youngster fabbed up a story about Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, having a heart attack. Now normally you wouldn't think much about it. But as it turns out, the post was picked up by a CNN staffer and reported it as fact. Immediately, Apple's stock went down as much as 5.4%. The SEC began an investigation into the incident and to date, they have not been able to find any trading records that show benefit from artificially causing the stock to drop. You can bet the kid almost soiled himself when the cops came to his door and wanted to "ask him a few questions."

Another blog story about a non-existent $800 Apple laptop was picked up by the New York times. This hot little news tid-bit peaked investor interests thinking that Apple was going to be delving into the low-price laptop market. Some analysts even made up charts predicting Apple's increased market share. The result was a big spike in Apple's share price. Once Apple unveiled their new laptop lineup with prices starting at $1299, the hoax was realized and the information sent Apple's share price plummeting.

CNN Money reports that Apple, "...which had gained a record-breaking 13% on Monday and opened higher Tuesday morning, was down more than 5% by the time Jobs finished his presentation"

2 times in the last couple of months, a blogger has caused a major alteration in a publicly traded company's share price. Are these stories of how powerful bloggers have become or stories about the prevalence of sloppy journalism? And why is the market so volatile that unfounded claims by an 18 year old blogger can create so much havoc? What are your thoughts?

Oh, and did you hear that GM is introducing a new SUV that is powered by some new energy source? I think something was said about dilithium crystals? That should bolster their share price a bit.

 

A Cat Playing Fetch - Are You Kidding Me?

Yesterday, Jason over at Gorilla Sushi was babbling on about teaching his cat to play fetch. Now everyone knows cats are dumb and they don't have the mental capacity to perform complex tasks like - well - fetching something.

I Twittered to Jason refuting his outlandish claims and challenged him to provide proof that his feline could indeed play fetch. Boldly, and with confidence, I said that if he could teach a cat to fetch and provide video proof, then I would send him some cheese.



Jason, your cheese is on it's way.

 

Quick Update

I don't really have anything profound to say today. I just wanted to put up a quick post to let you know I was thinking of you.

I do know that I never want to look out the window of my airplane and see this.


via

I am not the best "flyer" in the world and I am pretty sure if I saw something like this, I would freak out.

 

You Better Catch The First 9 Seconds

I've seen this anti-smoking commercial from the Truth group a handful of times and I always seem to miss the "truth statement" at the beginning. Which obviously leaves me wondering, "what the heck did I just see."



I think that the commercials are well done and have the best intentions, but they fall short in a big way. If you don't catch the first part of the commercial you have no idea what the point is. Normally you lead with the "mystery" and reveal the message at the end. There are 5 similar spots that all deal with the different harms and "company lies." They are all formatted in a similar manner and it's my opinion that they would be more effective if they were written with the "musical" at the beginning and the message after that.

Subject matter aside, the commercial below is exactly what I am talking about.



Thanks for stopping by The Big Bald Blog. See you on Monday.

 

The Thunder Show

I know I may be a little late on the draw and many of you have been on board for quite some time but lately I have been watching this guy named Gary VAY-NER-CHUK. He is the director of operation at the Wine Library in New Jersey. The company's video blog is called Wine Library TV and this, my friends, is one well done Vlog. Not only does this guy have amazing energy but he also knows what he is talking about. With catch phrases like "sniffy sniff", "give it a whirl", "Mott, link it up" and "the oak monster", Gary Vaynerchuk has done an amazing job at self promotion and branding.

He's a bit unorthadox compared to your typical snooty wine reviewer but you know what? It is wildly entertaining and a huge breath of fresh air. The V-man, with the help of of the viewers, claims to be changing the wine world whether they want it changed or not.

Called the Thunder Show, Gary reviews all manner of wine, cheese and other libations during the video segments. Even though it may seem a bit crazy at first, the advice and reviews are usually very insightful and down to earth.

Gary even has his own blog about marketing, branding and monitization that "we're linking it up below. "



Wine Library TV neither needs my endorsement nor any more links. I simply thought that this was one well done video blog and worth sharing regardless of the subject material. If you are thinking about starting a business around a video blog, you would do well to take cues from The Thunder Show.

Have a good weekend everyone, I am heading North for the weekend.

 

"What I Found In My Email" Mondays. Vol.2 - Issue 27

How many of you felt persecuted as a kid. Everyone was out to get you, the man was keeping you down and parents just didn't understand.

Well, here's a youngster that shares your sentiments exactly.



AND here's a mom that needs to be applauded. This ad from the DesMoines Register is almost as good as the ad I once saw in a local swap sheet wanting a "flux capacitor" for a 1981 DeLorean. Seriously, it was in there but I never saved it and I am kicking myself.

Welcome to the week Big Bald Bloggers.

 

Saturday Contest Reminder

Just a reminder that all contest entries must be in by the 15th. Last time the winner received her ad on over 45 different blogs. Make sure you get entered and good luck.

 

More Spammers Get The Smackdown

Here's another tasty bit of internet justice. Hot off the presses from ComputerWorld.com, a couple just got hammered with a... (dramatic pause) ...$256 MILLION fine for inundating people with junk email.

"Henry Perez and his wife Suzanne Bartok were ordered to pay the damages -- amounting to US$10 per bulk e-mail -- following a four-year court case in which the judge found that they had bombarded CIS Internet Services of Clinton, Iowa, over a four-month period in 2003."

It's probably a safe bet that CIS will never see any of that money but it feels good to hear about spammers getting what they deserve. Evidently, CIS was getting hit so hard, the massive amount of emails they received ate away at their bandwidth. So much so, that they ended up loosing about 3800 customers in 3 years even after buying dedicated servers to keep the spam at bay.

ComputerWorld reports that "...CIS has filed suit against many spammers and so far it has received about 10 judgments in its favor, Kramer said. Collecting the money has proven to be difficult, however. Many of the spammers have gone out of business, moved their money overseas or simply hidden from sight..." At least they can't do business as normal or as easy as they once did.

I always wondered how Hormel feels about "Spam" being used in such a derrogatory manner. I would think it kind of puts a damper on the marketing of such a fine product.

 

The Advertising of Yesterday Part XVIII

We have all heard the phrase, "You can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl." Salem was obviously attempting to work this into their "You can't take the country out of Salem" campaign. As a stand alone concept, this 1970 ad in Outdoor Life falls horribly short.



An A is given for effort though. Here is a 1970 TV commercial from the same campaign.



So what exactly is this campaign all about? This video on TobaccoVideos.com does a better job of explaining what this "country" concept is all about.

"Super king size Salem the extra length cigarette with a taste that's country soft, country fresh" “Salem gently air-softens every puff…” "Take a puff its springtime."

8 to 10 years prior, in the 60's it was all about how Salem "Freshens Your Taste." Notice they didn't say, freshens your breath. You have to admit, the jingle was fairly well done. And did you see the technological breakthrough that Salem offers in their cigarette paper? Yep, your smoke was softened with fresh air through their "special paper."

OK, I get it now. Salem is as fresh as the country air. Well maybe some country. I know around here you sometimes get wafts of pig manure and/or cattle lots. They must be talking about Wisconsin or Minnesota.

My how times have changed.

 

And We Wonder Why Kids Are Dumb

How exactly are you supposed to respond to this during parent/teacher conferences?

 

America's Got Talent Winners

Last night was the big finale on America's Got Talent. Normally I don't watch a lot of TV, but for some reason I got sucked into this show in a big way. I started recording them on my DVR so I wouldn't miss anything.



As you saw in the video, this season's winner, claiming the one million dollars and a show in Vegas was Neal E. Boyd, an amazing opera singer that blew everyone away during the auditions in Chicago. Second place was Eli Mattson. Third place went to the hip hop inspired two man violin team Nuttin' But Stringz. Juilliard trained violinists, they were extremely entertaining. Fourth was singer Donald Braswell and bringing up the rear was Queen Emily in fifth. In my humble opinion, Queen Emily and Braswell's rankings should have been the other way around.

Everyone of the top 5 contestants were great. I was really disappointed however. I was on board for Eli Mattson ever since his first audition in the video below. Eli, if for some reason you stumble across The Big Bald Blog - you should have had it man. Regardless of the outcome, you got talent and your gonna make it big.



I think that this guy really had the most "talent".

Other than Eli Mattson, One of my other favorite acts that didn't make it to the finals was the ZooperStars. They were the "inflatable suit" guys and they were simply HILARIOUS. I understand that they would never have made it to the winners circle but they were extremely entertaining. One other act that I thought was worth mentioning was the 2nd Ozzy impersonator. Again not a contender for the top spot, but funny nonetheless. Check out Sharon's reaction to this guy.



Here's my order where I think they should have placed.

1. Eli Mattson
2. Neal E. Boyd
3. Nuttin' But Stringz
4. Queen Emily
5. Donald Braswell

Who do you think should have won? What act do you think should have made it to the top 10 or top 5 that didn't?

 

To Further Beat Texting To Death

OK, tell me to stop anytime. In my ongoing obsession with texting, I ran across this.

So California already had a law that preventing people to hold a cell phone in their hand right? Apparently the Governor of the Left Coast just signed a new law specifically dealing with texting.

"The new law may seem a bit redundant to one that took effect in July that banned holding a cell phone while driving. Using headsets and the like is still OK, of course...The initial law proscribed holding that cell phone up to your ear in order to make or take a call. It didn't block setting the phone on the passenger's seat or on the dashboard and pecking away while you drive" via

Those silly texters will now have to start using some kind of voice recognition software so all they have to do is talk into their Bluetooth headset and compose their text message.

OR they could just make a call.

Don't miss a thing, subscribe to The Big Bald Blog. And now you can even follow me on Twitter